Feeling a wince in the cheque book department today. Just spent thick end of £90k on a brand new drawbar combination which should arrive June/July.
As always, it’s built to my spec making everything as straightforward as possible for the trainee regardless of cost. It also keeps our fleet up to date with our oldest CAT C vehicle being just 2 years old. All the others have been purchased, new, in the last 9 months.
Not wishing to fuel the man/auto debate, but this is auto. The decision is based simply on current and forecast demand.
Good choice Pete, I’m sure it will be a very good investment, all our large trucks are on 2014 plates and I was told by a driving examiner this week all the big driving schools like us are buying auto trucks rapidly but smaller companies are sticking with manuals.
Tockwith Training:
Good choice Pete, I’m sure it will be a very good investment, all our large trucks are on 2014 plates and I was told by a driving examiner this week all the big driving schools like us are buying auto trucks rapidly but smaller companies are sticking with manuals.
Don’t agree with that Laurie a couple of smaller ones in our area have gone auto but your main competitor from Leeds are still manual.
I did a refresher in 2013 on a manual and really wished I’d chosen a school that had auto trucks. All the vacancies I’ve seen have been to drive autos.
Well, if its good enough for Peter Smthe its good enough for us to buy some auto trucks!, I can’t help it if the other training schools aren’t investing for the future. From an instructors point of view its a much more relaxed and safer job teaching new drivers with auto trucks, so our instructors feel its the right choice, hopefully customers agree too.
The slight difference is that we haven’t gone exclusively auto and the customer still has the choice of manual or auto.
I cant see us going fully auto for some years yet. For as long as some customers want manual, we’ll supply it. It’s all to do with choice. Not what is right or wrong IMO.
Should always Manuel to learn with as many companies still run manual fleets. I was taught and drove a manual for many years now where I work its all auto. I think its sad day that training companies are going auto its a skill set personally id like to see mantained
I fully understand, we have kept one manual truck, but no one wants to learn to drive in it, customers have a go in both and always opt for the auto, its not an old truck, see pic. Sure its a shame that new drivers will not learn to handle a truck gearbox, but technology moves on and you either move with it or get left behind.
I’m thinking of putting together a comparison video for new starters to view on youtube to show the differences once i get a free minute, Paul from Elmet has a good manual video, see if I can make a short vid showing the same route with both manual and auto.